Acronis Cyber Protect Integration Enhances Security for Citrix Workspace

Most business today is conducted at the edge, with employees working from home on vulnerable, often personal, endpoint devices.

As the amount of sensitive corporate data accessed by devices out of an organization’s control grows, so does the attack surface that the IT team must safeguard. In response to this complex reality, Acronis International GmbH announced the development of an integrated solution for MSPs designed to enhance the protection of their clients’ Citrix Workspace assets, no matter where they sit.

Citrix is driven to deliver a consistent work experience, free from complexity and distractions, that enables employees to perform at their best. And solutions like Citrix Workspace – the secure, intelligent, and high-performing digital workspace that enables greater employee productivity and engagement – have become critical, as two-thirds of all employees have reportedly switched to remote work in the wake of the Covid-19.

The challenge for organizations is countering the increase in sophisticated cyber-attacks targeting remote workers whose home systems and networks are rarely as resilient as office environments. Compounding that challenge: new research reveals 47% of remote workers worldwide report a lack of guidance from their IT teams on working remotely. That combination leaves them vulnerable to attacks that hurt their productivity, and also put valuable company data and systems at risk.

“Providing a consistent experience that is secure and reliable for employees, regardless of where they are working, is critical to keeping them engaged and productive,” said PJ Hough, EVP, chief product officer, Citrix Systems, Inc. “Through Acronis’ integration with Citrix, companies can provide comprehensive cyber protection that enriches the security of virtual apps and desktop users without getting in the way of their experience, and ensure their assets and data are protected now and into the future.“

The integration of Cyber Protect with Citrix Workspace, made possible through the APIs and SDKs of the company’s Cyber Platform, adds advanced cybersecurity capabilities that enhance Citrix’s existing privacy and security measures. As a result, the VB100 certified anti-malware solution secures endpoints with real-time protection that uses AI-based static and behavioral heuristic, on-demand antivirus, anti-ransomware, and anti-cryptojacking technologies to prevent direct attacks vs. the Citrix Workspace app.

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Cyber protection for virtual desktops
Given the increased sophistication of modern cyber-threats, any access point can be vulnerable to malware attacks that can destroy or alter files and inject malicious code. Without adequate cyber protection, a successful attack on a virtual desktop can put the entire environment at risk. Once the first client machine is compromised, the infection can move laterally across the network, encrypting data on other machines and leaving the target company open to devastating downtime.

Cyber protection unites data protection and advanced cybersecurity in one solution, which delivers a defense vs. such modern threats. Developers and ISVs can enhance their solutions using the APIs and SDKs of the firm’s Cyber Platform.

By integrating with Citrix, Cyber Protect delivers a cohesive and cost-effective solution that enables MSPs to protect virtual desktop environments from direct attacks. Its advanced anti-malware technology uses kernel-level drivers to protect files and registry entries from modification, while preventing the injection of malicious code.

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Roadmap calls for additional Citrix integrations
This integration is the first of several capabilities the company has planned to support Citrix solutions, with 4 additional enhancements being planned for early 2021.

Among the features MSPs will soon see available are:

• Agentless anti-malware protection for VMs. Other agent-based anti-malware protection tools on the market require their technology to run inside each VM in the environment, resulting in both greater complexity and consumption of resources. The firm plans to integrate Cyber Protect directly with Citrix’s virtual apps and desktops solutions, which will reduce complexity and cost while streamlining resource consumption.

• Antimalware protection for user profiles: As the frequency and effectiveness of ransomware attacks increase, 50% of companies worldwide report experiencing cyber-attacks at least once a week. Countering those attacks requires a proven solution, and testing by independent cybersecurity labs such as AV-Test and Virus Bulletin shows that Cyber Protect’s anti-malware detects 100% of the latest malware attacks with zero false positives.

• Agentless backup for Citrix hypervisor: Most backup tools run a full-size agent inside each VM, increasing the complexity of the overall system, as well as the resource consumption on the virtualization host. The company’s agentless backups for Citrix’s virtualized environments provides a more efficient way to capture backups by decreasing RAM/CPU consumption up to 10x  – reducing the time it takes to manage multiple backup agents per VM.

• CDP for user profiles: Throughout the workday, employees can make unintended changes to their data, such as accidentally deleting important files. This kind of data loss not only affects the individual user’s productivity, the entire business can suffer as a result. Using CDP technology, the Cyber Protect agent tracks and backups every change in user files. Its interface enables a user to revert files to the latest point in time in a transparent manner, ensuring employees and businesses stay productive.

“In this day and age, the need to bring user-friendly, comprehensive cyber protection to virtual desktop environments is more critical than ever,” said Serguei ‘SB’ Beloussov, founder and CEO, Acronis. “Working with partners like Citrix to develop and deploy integrated technologies is the key to ensuring businesses can survive and thrive in the Covid-19 era – and well beyond.“

MSPs interested in strengthening the security of their Citrix Workspace client can try Cyber Protect for themselves with a 30-day trial.

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